Staff Writer Michelle Pitcher wrote today’s story about how Grapevine-based GameStop is muscling its way into the resale market for Apple, Android and Kindle products.

Upgrades are driving the resale market of smartphones and tablets.

Her story quotes an interesting statistic: About 25 percent of mobile customers upgrade every 18 months, according to research firm Compass Intelligence. The firm’s research also found that nearly 280 million mobile phones in the U.S. are idle or deactivated sitting in drawers, waiting to be recycled.

Not everyone wants to pay new retail prices for the latest mobile devices which can cost several hundred of dollars. Some consumers are content with last season’s products. Parents have often started out their youngest gamers on older consoles before investing in newer more expensive models and games. The concept seems to be the same with mobile devices.

With its history of recycling used video games and consoles, GameStop had the expertise to expand the business.

The offer was driven by a social media campaign that generated more than 20 million impressions, according to Dallas-based Current, the firm behind “America’s mobile makeover month by RadioShack” campaign.